1st Edition

Countering Discrimination in Social Work

Edited By Bogdan Lesnik Copyright 1998

    Discrimination? Isn't there enough talk about discrimination? Yes, indeed. That is why we have to begin countering discrimination. We need strategies that will make it inoperative or at least limit its scope. But first, we need to think how discrimination works and identify it where it works. It concerns far more than mere procedural hitches for which a few legal provisions will do. Countering Discrimination (Volume 1998 of International Perspectives in Social Work yearbook) brings papers that analyse mechanisms of social discrimination in a variety of such locations and bring proposals for counter-strategies. This is essential in social work if causes, rather than manifestations, of the problems it is concerned with are to be addressed. But it is also essential that everybody who opposes discrimination recognise its subtle and dispersed ways of operation in the human services, regardless of their own basic field of work. In this respect, the book will be useful to a very wide audience.

    Contents: Introduction; Poverty and deprivation; Globalization and gender relations in social work; Affirmative action: a counter to racial discrimination?; Social work and independent living; Facing our futures: discrimination in later life; Lesbians and gay men: social work and discrimination; Intellectual disability, oppression and difference; Strategies of empowerment: taking account of protests by people; Towards a theory of emancipatory practice.

    Biography

    Bogdan Lesnik

    ’As British society lurches between progress and backlash, this unfussy edition should be bought by every social work agency so that its best chapters can be available to practitioners and policy makers...well balanced and relevant to management and practice.’ Community Care ’...a valuable contribution to the theory and practice of countering discrimination.’ Social Work in Europe ’...useful for facilitating greater understanding of the discrimination of marginalized groups as well as suggesting ways for combating such practices...the book provides a helpful tool to social workers and social work students wishing to grapple with issues of power and ally themselves with the powerless.’ European Journal of Social Work ’Countering Discrimination in Social Work makes an important international contribution to the field of social work. Social work educators may wish to use this book as a required text in courses on human behaviour.’ International Social Work